Sick Day
by LadyDeathbat
Summary: Ichigo hears sneezing from his closet...Why is that idiotic girl sleeping in his closet? She has her room with his sisters...Ichigo's dad makes him stay home with the sick soul reaper. FLUFF


**A/N – I seem to get a lot of love from my IchiRuki one-shots so...here's another. Please R&R!**

**Inspiration: Well...I cosplay Rukia and stuff...and I woke up today feeling like utter crap, wishing I had an Ichigo to take care of me. **

**Song: Worry About You by Ivy (from the Kingdom Hospital OST) **

Sick Day

"A-A-AHHCHUU!" Rukia sneezed again, coughing and rolling on her side, wondering if she was going to die. Her head felt heavy and sore as though her brain had become so big that her head could no longer contain it and that it may turn to mush and ooze out her ears any second. Her nose couldn't make up its between running or being stopped up; likewise, she was constantly uncovering herself then covering back up. This was a nightmare...

Ichigo sat up, glaring at his alarm...5:30AM – still an hour until he needed to be awake. He couldn't sleep. He kept hearing a strange noise from his closet in his sleep. Rukia, ever since moving in, had been staying in his sisters' room so there was no way...He furrowed his eyebrows, throwing back the covers and pulling on pajama pants over his boxers.

He threw open the closet door, curled in a small ball, her back to him was Rukia. His eye twitched violently as he pulled the blanket off of her (his favorite blanket from childhood that he secretly hid in his closet still).

"Oi, chibi shinigami," he said in a commanding tone. He reached for her shoulder but she turned to face him on her own. Her skin held very little color, her eyes were red and twitching slightly – an obvious sign that she was being beaten by a migraine. He had planned to say something mean to her but how could he when she looked so...so helpless. He sighed, kneeling down to her level, running a hand through his orange hair.

"What?" she croaked, trying to look angry but instead looked pained by the hoarse sound of her voice.

"I'll get dad," he assured her, patting her head and standing, turning away. Her hand caught the edge of his shirt and he looked over his shoulder at her. His brown eyes met a pair of pleading violet eyes.

"Don't...you should sleep," she strained to say, sending herself into a coughing fit.

He sighed and picked her up in both arms with ease, supporting her arms and legs with his tanned arms. "If you won't let me go alone, I guess I will just have to carry you."

"Ah! No! Ichigo...dammit...put me down!" she demanded, squirming in his arms and protesting until he tightened his grip, shoving her face against his shoulder to make her shut up. It appeared to have been affective as she knew if she yelled too much she'd wake everyone else on the block and lose her voice in the process. Not only that but...his scent was so warm and inviting...she closed her eyes, taking a moment to drift into comfort's embrace...if only for a moment.

"Gooooood Moooorning, Iiiiiichiiiiiiiigoooooo!" Ishhin Kurosaki screamed, jumping from the top of the stairs down towards his son. Ichigo ducked, moving behind the wall at the bottom to protect the passenger in his arms.

"Damn it, dad! You fucking psycho! What if you'd hit Rukia!?" Ichigo screamed, sounding more frantic and aggravated than usual.

Isshin Kurosaki pulled himself off the floor, wiping blood from his eyebrow. "Rukia? What's wrong with my darling third daughter!?"

Ichigo frowned, "I think she has a cold..."

"I'm fine!" Rukia insisted, only to be shoved harder against Ichigo's chest.

"Shuddit! I'm not the one who was sleeping in someone else's closet for comfort!" Ichigo shook her lightly, readjusting her in his arms before sitting her on one of the clinic beds.

"I! I didn't want Yuzu and Karin to get sick!" she shouted but her voice was cut short by a pain in her throat.

"So it's okay if you get your germs all over my stuff, huh?" he yelled back at her.

"How sweet of you not to want the others to get sick, dear daughter," Isshin cried, throwing himself at Rukia. She didn't have the strength to dodge so she just let Isshin cling to her until his son's foot collided with his chin.

"Can you just give her something please so we can get to school?" Ichigo growled insistently.

"School?" Isshin inquired, running a thermometer across Rukia's forehead and frowning deeply.

"Yes, school? As in, the place where I spend twelve years getting educated in things I may or may not ever use."

"Miss Rukia is in no way attending school today. Her fever is 101 degrees and if I let her go, well I'd be a bad doctor," Isshin informed his son, sterilizing the thermometer and then placing it back in his drawer.

"But...I wanna go to school," Rukia protested, knowing she wouldn't be able to spend time with her friends in the human world forever.

"Ichigo, stay with Rukia so she won't be lonely," Isshin told his son sternly, leaving no room for argument.

Ichigo scratched the back of his neck, sighing. "Guess I have no choice, ne, shorty?" He glanced at Rukia and flashed her a rare but genuine smile.

"Mama~ look how sweet our son is~!" Isshin cried, throwing himself at an oversized poster of Ichigo's mother. "Why, Masaki dear, it must be love! That's the only explanation!"

"Oi! D-d-don"t say such strange things!" Ichigo and Rukia shouted in unison. Karin kicked her father in the behind as she stepped into the clinic area.

"Move it, goatface," she demanded before picking up her schoolbag and heading for the door.

"Ah! I'm sorry," Yuzu yelled, following her sister, in a rush, having gotten up late. "I didn't have time to make breakfast! We have club activities!"

"Daddy will drive you!" Isshin threw himself at the girls after grabbing his car keys. Then the house went silent. Rukia sat on the hospital bed, shivering violently. Ichigo looked concerned.

"Don't make that face," she told him in a hoarse whisper and he pat her head.

"Let me make you some soup, small fry."

"Don't call me-!" Rukia was cut off as Ichigo threw her over his shoulder, carrying her to the kitchen – his personal way of making her not strain her voice. He sat her in the kitchen and gave her a look that said "Don't even get up."

She sighed in defeat and laid her head on the table, watching him throw on Yuzu's apron and stare, perplexed, at a cook book for ten minutes. He looked in the cabinets and drawers, trying to find everything. He didn't want Rukia to know it but he had no idea where half of this shit was or what any of these damned instructions meant.

Rukia stood, smiling sleepily, seeing how he was struggling for her sake. "Ichigo? I think I should just lay down...Don't force yourself to do so much for me."

Ichigo sighed but followed her upstairs. She turned towards his room and he was going to protest but instead all he could say was, "Don't sleep in the closet. Use my bed...besides I'm sure Kon is tired of you sneezing on him."

"Wrong, Ichigo! Onee-san's sneezes are-" Ichigo kicked Kon into the hallway, not wanting to hear the rest of his ignorance. He turned and sighed heavily, smiling as he saw Rukia curled up on his bed. She was snoring softly, her mouth open. She was wheezing softly and he cursed himself for not getting her some cold medicine.

"What do I do in a time like this?" he asked himself quietly, questioning how he could fight arrancar and hollows with no problems but taking care of a sick girl...Did cold medicine even work on shinigami?

He stood from his desk chair and went back downstairs to the clinic area. He went to his father's bookshelf.

_Glaucoma & Cancer, & other diseases..._

No...

_Flu Season for Dummies_

Not quite...

_the Quickest Way to Cure a Cold_

"Ahah!" he shouted and smiled, thanking his lucky stars for finding it amongst the mess of his father's books. He flipped through the book for an hour before getting bored of reading the same things over and over again. He looked over and saw one of Rukia's strange manga sitting on the bookshelf. He pulled it down and flipped through it. The boy in the story was sick and a witch had told the girl that if she kissed him that he would regain his strength.

Ichigo blushed, slamming the book shut and tossing it back on the shelf. "R-ridiculous," he muttered but he was desperate. And desperate times came for desperate measures. They were just friends, right? And in some countries that was a greeting...a kiss on the lips. But he had never kissed anyone before...and what if she woke up and killed him!?

"AUGH!" he held his head with both hands, telling himself to be a man as he marched up the stairs. He came to his room and sat on the edge of the bed. Best to get this over with quickly, he told himself and leaned down, brushing his lips against Rukia's. He pulled away after a few milliseconds(which had felt like five minutes) – her lips were soft, her breath was warm. An she was...for the first time he really looked at her, she was beautiful. He sighed, heavily, ignoring his own stupidity as his face filled with blood.

He sat in his desk chair and folded his arms across the desk, laying his head on his arms and watching Rukia sleep, hoping that whole kiss thing worked. He smiled softly before drifting off to sleep...

Ichigo sat up hours later, head feeling heavy and full. Rukia was sitting up and bed, not nearly as pale as earlier, a book in her hand.

"Dammit..." he muttered, knowing he was sick now.

"Looks like tomorrow will be another sick day, huh?" Rukia teased.

**A/N – I don't think I will continue but there you go. Now I'm gonna curl up in bed with my Ichigo plush and sleep. **


End file.
